GUIDE TO THE PHILOSOPHY 1938 - 1947.pdf - Rare Books at ...

A THEORY OF OOOD OR VALUE 439
continual intercourse with beautiful things.
Thus the
recognition of particulars enlarges that knowledge of
universals which is already presupposed in the recognition
of particulars.
The process of character formation may, therefore, be
described as follows. We start with an initial knowledge
of moral virtue which is innate. In the light of this know-
ledge we recognize those characters which possess virtue
and those actions which it is our duty to* do and feel an
obligation to perform them. On each occasion on
which we recognize the virtue of others, on each occasion
on which we acknowledge the pull of obligation upon ourselves,
our knowledge of the universal is deepened and
enriched. The process may be metaphorically likened to
that of filling in the outlines of a sketch, or clothing a
skeleton with flesh and blood. The same principle applies
in the realm of aesthetics; it is because we have an innate
feeling for beauty that we are able to recognize and
acclaim beautiful things, while the repeated recognition
of beautiful things deepens and enhances our knowledge
of beauty. The process offorming good taste and of building
up a good character is, from this point of view, that of
coming to know the universals beauty and goodness, or
rather ofcoming to know in "the flesh' 1
something of which
we had what may be termed "an academic" knowledge
from the first.
In What Forms does Value Reveal Itself? We have
now to ask what is the nature of this value of which,
I am contending, we have an innate recognition, and in
what particulars does it manifest itself? To take the second
question first, the answer is, I suggest, one of fact. What
are the things which men recognize to be ultimately
valuable, in the sense that they desire and value them for
their own sake, desiring and valuing other things only
in JK> far as they are a xfieans to these ultimates? The
traditional answer is that they are three; goodness, which
I am calling moral virtue, truth and beauty. I think that